4:14pm: Big retailers to report earnings this week
The Dow closed Monday up 48 points, 0.1%, at 33,349, the Nasdaq Composite added 80 points, 0.7%, to 12,365 and the S&P 500 improved 12 points, 0.3%, to 4,136. The small-cap Russell 2000 index gained 20 points, 1.2%, to 1,761.
Investors are cautiously eyeing the debt ceiling deadline, as President Biden is expected to host lawmakers on Tuesday.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, for her part, believes the US will avoid a default.
“I’m hopeful. I think the negotiations are very active. I’m told they have found some areas of agreement,” Yellen told The Wall Street Journal over the weekend.
Earnings season is also drawing down, with big retailers Walmart, Target and Home Depot scheduled to report this week.
12.05pm: Stocks struggle as debt ceiling deadline nears
US stocks were mixed in noon trading as top American lawmakers plan to meet Tuesday to resume budget negotiations after postponing talks set for Friday.
At midday, the Dow lost 20 points to 33,281, while the S&P 500 added 4 points at 4,128 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 59 points to 12,344.
“It’s kind of a waiting game,” Globalt Investments’ Keith Buchanan said.
“Each day that goes by, and each postponement, each day there’s not a development … I think it will grow more and more difficult for the markets to really get any traction,” he added.
Notable movers included shares of Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc, which surged more than 28% after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee voted eight to six in favor of the accelerated approval of the company’s therapeutic SRP-9001 for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
9:35am: Investors eye debt ceiling negotiations
Equities edged higher at the open on Monday on investors’ hopes that political leaders could this week reach an agreement on the country’s debt limit.
President Joe Biden is set to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday to resume negotiations after talks were pushed back from Friday.
Just after the opening bell on Monday, the Nasdaq had added 12 points or 0.1%, the S&P 500 was up 5 points or 0.1% at 4,129 points, and the Dow Jones had added 20 points or 0.1% at 33,321 points.
Major movers included monday.com, which was 5.8% higher on a first quarter earnings beat, and Shake Shack, which had added 5% on reports of an activist investor-led company shake-up.
7:50am: Stocks seen higher
US stocks look set to rally on Monday following back-to-back weekly losses for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500, although investors are searching for fresh direction and worries over a possible US government default next month remain a concern.
In pre-market trading, futures for the DJIA pointed 0.4% higher, while S&P 500 futures also added 0.4%, and contracts for the Nasdaq-100 gained 0.3%.
Wall Street's main indexes ended lower on Friday as they absorbed a preliminary reading from the University of Michigan last week that showed consumer sentiment falling to a six-month low - the DJIA shed 0.03%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4%.
Overall the DJIA lost 0.3% and the S&P 500 shed 1.1%, respectively, last week. The Nasdaq Composite, however, advanced 0.4%.
Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets commented: "After last week’s losses, major US equity indices are pointing towards a higher start at Monday’s opening bell – at least for now. Sentiment still seems to be very much on the back foot however with concerns that further rate hikes from the Fed may still prove necessary to tamp down inflation and earnings news remaining distinctly mixed."
He added: "Economic news in the hours ahead remains limited but there are a series of speeches due from Federal Reserve Bank branch presidents today that will be closely followed for further clues – or even opinions – as to where monetary policy might go next.
"Earnings news also looks thin on the ground, but with those recession fears still lingering the macroeconomic backdrop will remain front of mind in the days ahead."
Also in focus were debt ceiling negotiations as the US draws nearer to the so-called 'X date', when the government may go into default without a raise in the debt limit to pay its bills. CNBC reported a meeting between President Joe Biden and congressional leaders on the topic was rescheduled to this week.
Investors will also be watching for May data from the Empire State Index, which will show how New York State manufacturers feel about the economy. Economists are expecting a reading of 1.0, which would be much lower than the 10.8 level in previous data.